


Only A Winner and a Loser

by titaniumsansa



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Angst, F/F, Gay, Inspired by The Hunger Games
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-10 19:35:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8934178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/titaniumsansa/pseuds/titaniumsansa
Summary: Hunger Games AU that has a few minor details changed. Artemis focused, with Zatanna as a fellow tribute. Long haul fic.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sunkelles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/gifts).



“It’ll be fine.” Jade says, too forcefully to be completely comforting. Artemis only has three entries to be reaped, three out of thousands. They’re still lean and thin, but everyone is. It’s how things work in District 12, like the coal dust that settles over everything. It’s time to go though, and Jade fixes Artemis’s braid before they go.

* * *

 

The Reaping ceremony is never good. It’s a fact, like the sky is blue or the grass probably should be green. Their district hasn’t had a victor in over twenty years, and this year, two families will lose a child, watch them die on the screens along with everyone else. It’s a Quarter Quell this year. The last time it happened, it made the Games drag out, with complicated mazes and puzzles. Jade pulls her hand to keep her from getting caught in the crowd. Their mother and father will be somewhere else in the crowd, they know Jade will keep her safe. 

Jade has always kept her safe, even if she comes off as rough. Artemis knows her better than that, her sister is her favorite person. Despite their three year age difference, Jade pushed her to keep practicing archery in the woods when she thought about quitting. Jade won’t let anything happen to her. They’ll survive this Reaping, like the others and they’ll go to the woods and hunt and it’ll be fine. 

Artemis feels the grip on her hand tighten as the woman from the Capitol begins to speak on the stage they set up every year for the Reaping. The woman with the too blue hair and matching lipstick is the District 12 Escort for the tributes along with the only living victor of the District, Oliver Queen. The mayor walks on stage, and the cameras move to catch it.

Artemis hates the cameras, they catch every angle of this. There’s no way to escape them as the history of Panem is repeated by the mayor like he does every year. Artemis stares at the glass spheres on the stage, full of thousands of paper slips. The town square quiets as the President appears  on the screens. He begins to spew out the same shit he does every year, but there’s a wooden box in his hands. He announces the box has to do with the Games, this year is the Quarter Quell after all. Artemis feels like Jade’s trying to break her hand as President Luthor announces this year will have double the tributes from each district. Forty eight tributes instead of twenty four. The district escort smiles too hard for the camera, the smile looks painful.

The first girl called is older than Artemis, her name is Swann. She’s pretty, but Artemis can’t imagine her lasting long in the Games. Even now, people are placing bets in District 12 on winners, on who will be reaped, the ages of the tributes.

“Artemis Crock!” The woman calls and Jade’s nails dig into her palm before she lets go. She has to let go, she’s too old to take Artemis’s place. A single year prevents her from saving her baby sister from the Games. Artemis swallows and walks onstage as the boys are called. She doesn’t look at Swann and she doesn’t look at the cameras. Jade’s eyes find hers, sharp and remorseful. Her mother and father are moving through the crowd to join her, one of the boys is eighteen, and the other is two years younger than Artemis. They’re all supposed to shake hands for the cameras, and Artemis wonders if her grip is too tight.


	2. Train

They’re taken into custody, legally out of their parents’ hands and into the Justice Building. Swann looks at Artemis and attempts a reassuring smile. Artemis just feels like she’s waiting. There will be time to say goodbyes, in this rich room that’s only meant for goodbyes. It’s the last time most tributes see their loved ones, and Artemis feels like she can breathe again when Jade comes through the door. Jade isn’t usually one for physical affection, but she hugs Artemis tightly as their parents begin to talk. Her father talks of strategies and her mother warns her of how dangerous the Capitol people must be. They bend the rules sometimes, but Artemis has never heard her mother speak about the Capitol like she does.

“They’re dangerous and they’re fickle. One year they’re all dying their skin blue and the next they’re changing their eye colors. Don’t trust any of them.” Her mother is serious and Artemis nods.

“I won’t.” Artemis promises.

“Try to win. We want you to come home.” Jade says and can’t let herself think about watching her little sister dying in the Games, coming home in a plain wooden box.

“I promise. I’ll try. There are double the tributes this year.” Artemis reminds her sister and her mother bites her lip. There are districts where winning is an honor, a challenge, wealthier districts where kids train for years.

“But you’ve got something most of those kids don’t.” Her dad says and Artemis and Jade look at him.

“A brain. Real experience in the woods.” He continues and it’s probably as good as it’ll get with her dad, but she lets it means something. She’s going to die soon anyway, and Artemis shakes her head.

“It might not be woods. There was that year they were all in a desert.” Artemis says.

“Or that year they all froze to death in that icy wasteland.” Jade remembers. 

“There’s always been wood since that one. At least to make a fire.” Paula says and Jade lets her go as her mom moves closer for a hug.

“You just have to get your hands on a weapon. Then you’ll be lethal.” Her dad says it like it’s a good thing and she wonders if her mom shot him a dirty look for that. Artemis doesn’t want to kill kids. There have been Games where the last tributes left were from the same district, they had to try and kill each other to win. Killing Swann or either of the boys going with her isn’t something she thinks she can do.

“Get a bow.” Jades presses as the Peacekeeper gestures for them to leave.

“I love you.” Artemis says, and she doesn’t cry.

“We love you too.” Her mom says and then they’re gone.

* * *

 

They’re in a car from the ride from the Justice Building to the train station. It’s not a long drive, but it’s odd to be in a car. Most people just walk everywhere. Cars are rare. The cameras at the train station, reporters who film them before they’re allowed to get in the train. The younger boy has been crying, and while Artemis doesn’t blame him, it’s not a good move. Sponsors and the entire country are watching them, looking like a coward isn’t going to help him stay alive. Then they’re allowed onto the train and Artemis doesn’t allow herself to look relieved until the train is moving, away from District 12.

The train isn’t like one of the slow coal trains they see regularly. This train moves incredibly quickly, the trip to the Capitol takes less than a day. The tributes are always shown leaving the trains the same day, and Artemis could try to calculate how quickly the train is going, but she doesn’t care. Most of school has been math or reading, things that relate to coal, what flame colors mean, why they have to mine so deep.

It’s what Artemis expected from the Capitol, the train is plush with furniture that looks like it’s straight from the Capitol, almost foreign looking. It all looks too perfect to be used, even the chambers Artemis is shown and told are hers to use.

There’s too many clothes in the dresser, odd items and things in the rooms, it feels like she’s in a completely different world. It might as well be, Artemis thinks as she explores.

 


End file.
